Most of the wonderful people I connect with during the Author Blog Challenge are really dedicated and professional about their writing. They take classes, attend workshops, and participate in all kinds of things to hone their skills and improve their writing.

Then, there are those of us who just write because we have something rattling around in our heads. Kind of like a cleanse day when you are on a diet. You think, therefore you write. It is totally random, undirected and generally a little messy. (I suspect the others who do this, like me, also have cars that aren’t exactly operating room tidy…)

I did try taking a writing workshop once. It didn’t really work out for me. It was deliberately unstructured, and I ended up fighting all the demons in the back of my mind that wanted to come out. If you are Edgar Allen Poe, that kind of thing is kitschy. If you are just an average woman, it is another word that rhymes with kitschy, as well as boring. I learned that whatever you want to write is okay, which is good. But I wasn’t happy with the results, or myself, depending on how you look at it.

One of the great things about this challenge is getting prompts. Having prompts is very helpful, especially for those of us who have untrained mind muscles. Without them, we are left to our own devices to figure out what we want to say each day. That could be dangerous!

For example, today I am really annoyed with my doctor. If I didn’t have some focus, I would probably be writing about how irritating, enervating and downright stupid the process of being sick has become. I have rants in my head that would light the keyboard on fire. So I am grateful for the focus our blog mistress is providing.

Anyway, when I think about how I write, compared with most of the other writers who participate in these wonderful challenges, I inevitably think of “Free Fallin” by Tom Petty. The words to the song describe how I feel when I write. It works for me.

You are right. It works for you. I am a bit sporadic in my writing, but I work hard at the structure because I am a bit too sporadic. I would be writing putting a horrible doctor/healer in my book if I wasn’t careful. Although, hmmm maybe I will look at my characters again. Should I kill him off?